Stay With Me
by phoebe9509
Summary: Hotch informs the team that Prentiss quit and they react. A sequel to Can't Stay...Hope ya'll like, please R&R


_Hiya everybody! I didn't plan on writing another story that went with Can't Stay but basically everyone and their mother demanded one haha, so here it is. So this story is dedicated to my lovely reviewers who wanted more:_

_Clois16,__ LarissaBabehh, DracoMalfoysSweetGirl92, __NT, Pinkwalnuts, Greengirl82,__ babygurl0506,__ Romiross, __sarweber22, NicknHotchfan, snow6835, Longbourn22, and Kathi1C_

Hotch wound up taking the longest way possible back to the airstrip. He was in no mood to sit on a plane with people who basically alienated a person enough to make her quit. In the end, he was pissed, but he knew he couldn't show it. He was going to have to keep his cool, no matter how much he didn't want to.

The steps went on for what felt like forever and with each step his stomach dropped because he knew Emily wasn't with him. Hotch had just walked away, he left her there in the hotel by herself and every instinct in his body was telling him to go back and get her. Drag her back with him if he had to; just make sure she was on that plane with him. Nothing the other five people on this plane said or did should make her feel like she didn't belong. Like she wasn't part of their family.

As he stepped onto the plane, all five heads lifted up and he heard three sighs of relief. When Hotch took a seat Morgan was the one who spoke first.

"And where is Prentiss?" he snapped. "We've been waiting for half an hour and then you show up and she isn't even with you? I would like to go home!"

"How long are we going to have to wait for her to grace us with her presence?" Garcia wondered out loud.

Hotch glared at both of them before turning that gaze to the rest of the people on the plane. After taking a deep breath he decided to let it all out. "She's not coming," he started slowly then waited for everyone to react.

"What do you mean she's not coming?"

"Where is she?"

"Do we have to wait for her?"

"How's she getting back?"

"Can we go then?"

"She's not coming," his voice rose above everyone else's, "because she just quit."

Not a single word or sound was heard between them. Finally Reid decided to speak up.

"What do you mean she quit?" he asked timidly from his seat across from Hotch.

"Just what I said. There aren't many ways for that to be interpreted Reid. You're a genius, figure it out," he snapped. "She quit because of the fact that no one would talk to her! Emily was just doing her job! You all know that she wasn't able to tell us anything and it's not like any of us asked her point blank what she did before she came to the BAU. For all of you to hold such a grudge is beyond ridiculous. I get the fact that you're upset because of the whole faking her death thing, but you need to get over it. She did it to protect us and if you all could forgive _me_ and JJ for keeping that from you, then you can forgive her."

As he stared at everyone around him, he realized that he was making them feel guilty, and he was glad for that fact. They should feel that way. "She was your friend before any of this happened and it's not like she technically did anything to any of us, so she doesn't deserve to be treated like she is a piece of trash because she isn't! Everyone here used to be able to see that." Hotch then stood up and walked to the back of the plane away from everyone else. He couldn't be around them right now. And as the plane started to ascend into the air and still not a single word was muttered between the group, he realized that they all knew they made a mistake. Good he thought to himself as he stared out of the window and wondered how Emily was doing and how she planned on getting home.

The plane finally landed and Hotch was the first one off, quickly headed to his SUV and hopped in, not caring if any of the others wanted a lift back to the BAU with him. He knew he had to talk to them eventually, but with the way he was feeling right now, he knew now wasn't the time. He switched cars then headed home. Sleep was calling him and he hoped that tomorrow would be a better day.

The next morning Hotch strolled through the glass doors and stopped in place when he saw that everyone was already there. Since when did everyone arrive before him? Then memories of yesterday returned to him, and he realized they were all trying to get on his good side. Mentally rolling his eyes, he continued up to his office. As he passed Emily's desk something else made him stop.

"What is this?" he asked as he turned to look at his team.

Reid cleared his throat, clearly a little afraid of the look Hotch was shooting them. "We all put something on her desk."

"Why?"

"Because when she comes to clean out her desk, Emily will see that we all still care," Garcia started from the chair she had pulled up next to Morgan.

"And she'll see that we want her here," Morgan finished.

Hotch placed his briefcase on top of Emily's desk and looked down at the things they team had cluttered up for her. Reid had placed some magic trick items, Garcia made her a card which had a sunflower on the cover, Dave had placed her favorite coffee cup there when everyone knew that Dave liked to steal it so he could use it instead. And there was a long letter with the words 'I'm so sorry. Love Derek' pushed to the side. As he stared down at these items he realized that this team did love Emily. They did want her back and this losing her again was the only way for them to see how they had affected her.

"I'll let her know she can come clear out her desk whenever she's available," Hotch said then left the group to head to his office. After shutting the door and making his way over to his desk, he pulled out his cell phone. The phone ran four times before Emily answered.

"Prentiss," she mumbled, then caught herself, "Hello," she tried instead. She wanted to smack herself when she remembered she didn't have to answer her phone that way anymore. She was allowed to say hello.

"Good morning," Hotch started then quickly continued. "I'm just calling to let you know that you're able to come clean out your desk whenever you're available. Are you home yet?" he asked.

"No, my plane leaves in about ten minutes," Emily informed him. "And I'll be there tonight, when everyone is gone."

"You don't have to do that—"

"Yes I do," she quickly cut him off. "They don't want to see me and I don't want to see them, so we all win. I'll be there tonight," she whispered sadly. "Well, I got to go Hotch, my planes about to leave," she let him know before mumbling a goodbye and hanging up.

Hotch let out a deep sigh then pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping the headache he felt coming would change routes. As he gazed down into the bullpen he realized today was going to be somber day, and as he watched his team members carefully, he knew that Emily had to leave to teach all of these guys a lesson. They kept staring at her desk wishing she was there and it was like she died all over again. He knew at that moment that he had to be there later tonight when Emily showed up. No matter what.

6 o'clock rolled around and one by one the team left for the night. They all glanced at Emily's desk before walking out. Hotch turned off his light and sat in the dark, waiting for Emily to show up, and once 10 o'clock came she didn't disappoint him. When she walked through the door she looked both ways to make sure no one else was around. He saw her look up at his office and let out a sigh of relief that he 'wasn't' there.

Hotch watched as she walked over to her desk with a box in her hand and she halted her actions when she saw all the things the team placed on her desk. Her fingers lightly ghosted over the magic trick things from Reid and a genuine smile came to her face as she thought of basically her first bonding experience with the young genius. Then she saw the card Garcia had made her and her smile stayed in place. The tech knew she loved sunflowers and as she read the words inside she knew Garcia did in fact still love her. Her eyes caught sight of her favorite mug and she picked it up and played with it in her hands. Then she stopped everything when she saw a letter staring up at her and she knew who it had to have been from.

With shaking hands she picked it up and began to read:

_Princess,_

_ I realized something when I started writing this letter and it was that I haven't called you Princess once since you've been back. Hotch told us yesterday that you quit and I could only blame myself. I pushed you away. I never wanted you to feel that way about yourself, you're amazing. I know that you did what you had to do with Doyle because it was your job, and I respect you for what you did with his son. You amaze me, your strength and your ability to push all of that to the back of your mind so you can have some sort of normal life. I admire you more than you'll ever know. I realized that I haven't been the type of friend that you deserve, or even a friend at all these past few months. I need you to know that I do love you and I would do anything for you, but in the end I was mad. I was mad that you kept all those things from us, from me, and I was mad that you asked people to share things with you, but you had a whole other life outside of us. But now as I sit here writing this letter and staring at your desk without you there, I realize that I don't want to live in a world where you aren't there by my side. Having my back. Being my partner, just like the way it should always be. In the end I guess I'm asking for you to forgive me. Forgive me for pushing you away, for being an asshole, for not having your back, and please forgive me for making you feel like you had to quit. Baby girl that was never my intention, I love you and I hope deep down you still remember that, and you still feel that. I'm so sorry._

_Love,_

_Derek_

Somewhere in between the first line and the last Emily found herself stumbling into her chair and crying at his words. She never knew how much she missed Derek until now. Emily missed his brotherly affection and the way he always looked out for her and protected her. She jumped in her seat when a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Are you alright?" Hotch asked from his place behind her.

Emily turned around and quickly wiped the tears from her face. "What are you doing here?" she asked as she glanced at his darkened office once more.

"I knew you'd be stopping by and I didn't want you to go through all of that alone." He paused then took a deep breath. "I wanted you to know that you aren't alone."

"Did you know that they did this?"

"It was there when I got to work this morning. Believe it or not everyone else was already here." Silence surrounded the two and then Hotch spoke what was on his mind. "I told you they didn't hate you."

Emily scoffed slightly. "Did you read what Morgan wrote me?" she wondered out loud.

"No. Those things are yours, it was never a question whether I would read any of it."

Neither of them said a word and Emily tried to get her emotions under control. She felt like she had been crying non stop for the past few days and she didn't like it at all. She had been so good at hiding her emotions and pushing them to the side ever since she had been back but now she realized that it had all been too much for her and she just wanted it all to stop.

"So what do you say?" Hotch asked her which caused Emily to look up at him again and raise an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

Hotch knelt down in front of her and took her hands in his. "Are you going to stay?"

"Hotch I—"

"There is proof right in front of you," he motioned to her desk, "that the people here care about you. That they _want_ you around. You already know how I feel about it all. Emily I want you to stay. I don't want to lose you because of all of this. You are an amazing agent and it would be a loss to everyone if you just threw that all away. You know that they love you and I promise you that things will get better now. If you could have seen them today you would know how much they regretted your decision to quit. They knew it was their fault and all day they wanted to get you to come back."

Hotch lightly brushed her hair from her face and tucked a few strands behind her ear. "Stay," he saw the debate in her eyes. "Stay on the team Emily. Stay with me."

At those last three words Emily's gaze locked onto his and she felt more tears prickling her eyes. "What if nothing changes?" she asked quickly as her hand grabbed a hold of Hotch's. "What if they all thought they would miss me if I quit, but in the end they didn't and everything goes back to the way that it has been these past few months? I can't go through that again Hotch. It almost killed me the first time."

"I won't let it," he said softly as he moved closer. "No one is going to treat you like you don't deserve to be here anymore. No one is going to walk all over you and no one is going to ignore you. I swear Emily, when they see you they are going to be so excited that you're back and they'll forget everything that happened and it will all be how it should be."

"And what about us?" she asked completely unsure.

"What about us?" Hotch asked with a small smirk playing on his lips.

"Nothing," she quickly looked away embarrassed.

Hotch hooked his fingers under her chin and tilted her head to look at him. "I would personally like to see where we could take us," he smiled a genuinely. "You're beautiful and I'm sorry that it took me so long to tell you that. But I can promise that not a day will go by without me telling you."

Emily blushed deeply then ran her hand through his hair. "So you don't mind being with someone who used her sex appeal to bed a man for information?"

"Not at all, I think that adds character."

Emily let out a laugh at his answer. As she leaned down she stopped half way then held her breath, "promise you won't leave me?" she whispered.

"I wouldn't dream of it," he answered as his lips landed on hers softly. Hotch pulled her closer to him as he nibbled on her bottom lip.

Emily pulled away a few inches then gazed into his eyes. "Then I guess I still work here," she smiled before crashing her lips back down onto his. Everything about the kiss felt right. The place, the timing, the way Hotch wrapped his hand into Emily's hair. Him with her. Always next to her, and as she continued to kiss him, she knew nothing was going to make her give him up. Ever. She was where she belonged.


End file.
